Movie Review: We're The Millers (2013)

A raunchy comedy, We're The Millers finds good laughs in a story of strangers coming together as a family for all the wrong reasons.

In Denver, Dave Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is the friendly neighbourhood marijuana dealer. After tangling with local thugs, his cache of weed and money is stolen leaving him in debt to snarky supplier Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms). As payback, Brad pressures Dave into accepting a drug smuggling assignment to transport marijuana from Mexico into the United States.

To deflect suspicions Dave fabricates a family and recruits stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston), awkward neighbour Kenny (Will Poulter), and street kid Casey (Emma Roberts) as his wife, son and daughter respectively. They head to Mexico in an RV and en route meet RV vacationers Don and Edie Fitzgerald (Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn) and their daughter Melissa (Molly Quinn). Not unexpectedly, Dave does not have much of a plan, and nothing on the trip will go according to any plan.

Adopting a freewheeling style with plenty of improvisation, We're The Millers hits the mark at least as often as it misses. In many ways a foul-mouthed and twisted companion piece to Robin Williams' RV (2006), here director Rawson Marshall Thurber uses the drug smuggling plot as a jumping off point to shove a group of lonely and caustic people into a confined space and then hurl them into a wild adventure.

Dave, Rose, Kenny and Casey are used to being alone, and pretending to be a family is an immediate uphill battle. Having to do so while fooling drug barons in Mexico and suspicious guards at the border only adds to the fun. Of course they will eventually grow as people and come together as a family, but not before some quite hilarious moments, most designed to blow past any limits of decency.

The gangly Kenny is often in the middle of the best moments, proving himself an unlikely rapper before receiving potentially scandalous kissing lessons. The interactions with the Fitzgerald family just get better and weirder, with Dave and Rose stumbling into much more than they bargained during an in-the-tent highlight. And Jennifer Aniston lets loose and has fun with a stripping routine to distract a couple of real and ruthless drug smugglers doggedly pursuing Dave's unexpectedly large haul.

As can be expected some sequences fall flat, and the late introduction of amusement park ride attendant Scottie P adds an unnecessary new character and prolongs the length to a generous 110 minutes. Despite the mishaps, We're The Millers does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, a romp across the border looking for as much ear-poking trouble as possible.



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